Uneasy about Assassins’

Thursday

A little Boston theater company has been causing a stir with its current production, although it’s more about the timing of the show than the material.

A little Boston theater company has been causing a stir with its current production, although it’s more about the timing of the show than the material.

Company One, which has been called the city’s best fringe theater company, is putting on “Assassins,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim. It’s playing at the Boston Center for the Arts and was recently extended through Aug. 9.

Its playful, sometimes dark, musical numbers dive into the personalities of the men and women who have either killed or attempted to kill a president of the United States.

“You can’t leave this play and not talk about it,” says Artistic Director Shawn Lacount. “We’ve never done a musical, but we knew that if we ever did, it would be this one.”

This Company One production has gained added attention because of the current presidential campaign and the fact that Barack Obama is the nation’s first African-American candidate with a real chance to win the White House. Thoughts of a possible assassination attempt have been a largely unspoken fear during his run, although even Hillary Clinton seemed to reference that possibility when she reminded people of the assassination of Robert Kennedy during her battle with Obama for the Democratic nomination.

Staging the play has brought the issue to the surface, and some see that as a mistake.

“The reason we picked this play is because of the election,” says Lacount. “We had some sponsors back out because we were doing this the summer before the election. When that happened, I immediately knew it was the right decision.”

Lacount paid especially close attention to the criticism of one person. In a Boston Globe story, Liz Walker, the former WBZ-TV news anchor, took issue with the timing of the play and relayed those feelings to her son Nik, who plays the narrator in the play.

“I think her concerns are valid,” admits Lacount. “I do feel like this was done in a highly professional and responsible fashion. But Liz also didn’t know the play. All she knew was that it was about assassins and we have a black candidate in the world. The thinking was that if there’s so much positive energy out there, why would you bring up anything as negative as this?”

Walker did eventually see the play and Lacount says she told him she loved it.

“I think she still has the same questions she had,” says Lacount. “But that’s what this play does, it brings up a lot of questions and few answers. The biggest question is probably why is it important to hear the stories of these people?”

For Lacount, the answer to that lies within the American psyche and recent history. With Obama’s rallying cry of “change,” Lacount says he’s taking this opportunity to help people pause and to reflect on how the country got to this moment where everyone feels this universal need to change the way things have been going.

He says that this positive push for change is happening because the country has had “some negative things go down.”

“Do we really need to wait for everything to hit the fan to react?” says Lacount. “It’s OK to be reminded of the underbelly of the ugly and the difficult. My concept of the piece was that America is crossing the bridge and this is the story happening underneath.”

Fast Fact: Company One has crafted an engaging trailer for their production of “Assassins.” Artistic Director Shawn Lacount says this kind of promotion targets “the Youtube generation, and our audience is young and diverse.” You can see it at companyone.org.